Lawyer banned for forging client signature

A trainee solicitor has been banned from working in the profession without the permission of the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (SRA) after she was found to have forged a client’s signature.

Louise Bolderstone, who was a trainee in the London office of US firm Ropes & Gray, had been attempting to pass off a duplicate share certificate as an original document.

She was also fined £2,000, the most the SRA could impose without referring her case to a disciplinary tribunal.

The SRA found Ms Bolderstone had “printed a share certificate, traced the client’s signature onto it and sent it to a third party reporting it to be the original which had been lost”.

It also stated she had been dishonest, lacked integrity and undermined public trust in the provision of legal services.

As she was not qualified, Ms Bolderstone was made subject to an order under section 43 of the Solicitors Act, banning her from working in the profession without its approval.